This invention relates generally to magnetic tape cassettes, such as are used for recording video information, and more particularly to a system for reliably controlling and auditing the number of times the tape cassette is played.
Motion pictures are generally distributed to theaters which operate on a pay-per-view system, that is, members of the public are charged a fixed ticket price for each viewing of the film. Additional viewing of the film requires the purchase of additional tickets and the paying of additional fees.
A pay-per-view system is desirable because it allows a degree of economic price differentiation distinguishing between heavy and light demand for the product, maximizing the revenues obtained for the motion picture property and efficiently allocating costs among consumers. Pay-per-view pricing benefits consumers, both because it tends to decrease the cost of the first viewing, reducing the risk to all consumer of viewing an unknown motion picture and indirectly because it encourages the production of motion pictures (especially those of a quality which may be expected to receive multiple viewings).
The introduction of inexpensive, home video tape players, using magnetic tape stored in a cassette, has fundamentally changed the economics of how motion pictures are viewed and distributed. With the advent of the personal video tape recorder, a motion picture rental industry has been created in which the motion pictures are copied onto video tape cassettes and rented for home viewing. Presently within this rental industry, the ability to enforce a pay-per-view pricing structure has largely disappeared.
The inability of the motion picture industry to implement pay-per-view pricing in the rental industry requires that they sell the motion picture at a higher single price which in some way is an average of the expected viewings of each copy. Clearly, the infrequent viewer who purchases a tape and does not lend it out is unfairly penalized in this arrangement. Perhaps less clear, however, is that this arrangement is not ideal from the point of view of the rental companies who must purchase the motion picture at a price based on this before the fact estimate regardless of the actual demand for the motion picture which may be much less than the estimate. The cost associated with incorrectly estimating the rental demand of a motion picture could be efficiently shared by charging a pay-per-view basis.
Various means have been tried for approximating the benefits of pay-per-view pricing in the motion picture rental industry. Some methods destroy the tape, either physically or by erasing it, as the tape is viewed. These systems increase the cost of renting to impractical levels by requiring either new cassettes or re-recording of the old cassettes. Other methods employ counters that tally the number of viewings and then lock the cassette from further play. These methods also contemplate disposal of the cassette at the end of the range of the counter thus also increasing the cost of the system.
A variation of the above described cassettes having a counter are cassettes that include both a counter and a means for resetting of the counter when the counter reaches its limit. The resetting mechanism must be locked to prevent tampering or else it would be of little value, yet constructing such a locked resetting means is difficult. The lock must be reliable and inexpensive to be practical, and not unduly burdensome to the consumer and retailer. And the lock must secure in the face of the significant incentive to develop an unauthorized "master key", to permit unaudited viewings of cassettes. Such incentives will rise for any auditing system that becomes an industry standard, A casual locking systems will probably not be effective for its intended purpose of deterring unaudited viewings of the material on cassettes.
In order to reduce the cost of disposable cassettes with counters, the counter is typically given large range (e.g. 999). This eliminates the need to prematurely retire the cassette or to provide secure resetting capability but may detrimentally increase the benefit of simply stealing the cassette or fraudulently reporting its loss.
Frequently pay-per-view systems do not meet the joint concerns of the movie producers and the consumer who may want a no charge free preview period and considerable freedom in reviewing sections of the cassette during play without charging more than once or who may, as a practical matter, insist on the freedom to replay the cassette for a limited number of times consistent with home viewing.